Perry Nussbaum led a peripatetic career that ultimately brought him to Mississippi. He attempted to inculcate Jewish traditions among his congregants, fight anti-Semitism, and create organizational ties crossing many
boundaries. In a pattern reminiscent of Max Heller's, key events seemingly transformed Nussbaum into an activist whose Jewish identity intertwined with his stand on civil rights for African Americans. Gary Zola's
study traces the man and the forces that pushed and pulled him in many
directions.

Perry E. Nussbaum ( 8 February 1908-30 March 1987) retired from the
active rabbinate in August 1973. His retirement was a bittersweet event
for him and for his congregation, Temple Beth Israel of Jackson, Mississippi. Nussbaum was admired and resented. On the one hand, he had
unquestionably revivified Jewish life in the capital city of Mississippi
and, in the process, left a lasting impression on the community. As one
congregant noted, "He made the Jew in Jackson Jewish-conscious. . . .
He left a Jewish heritage to [the congregation]."2 On the other hand, Nussbaum's rabbinate in Jackson coincided with the compulsory dismantlement of segregation in the South--a societal transformation
foisted on an unwilling white populace by the federal government. As a
leading spokesman for Mississippi's Jewry during this explosive period, Nussbaum became a human lightning rod in one of the state's stormiest
periods.

Actually, the emotional pot boiled over six years earlier. On 18 September 1967 a bomb destroyed a significant portion of Beth Israel's
newly dedicated house of worship. Two months later, on 22 November,
the temple's parsonage--the rabbi's home--was bombed. These bomb-

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